


Òran Eala: Swan Song

by gingersnapper



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: Cursed Vaults, F/F, F/M, Hogwarts, Ravenclaw, not your typical Harry Potter story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28066470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingersnapper/pseuds/gingersnapper
Summary: Sadie Cromwell is a Ravenclaw girl who has a lot to live up to - her brother, the cursed vaults, you name it, she probably has to live up to it. A pureblood witch of Hebridean descent, she must figure out how to stop R, and having to do so extends way beyond just finding the cursed vaults before they did, and even beyond her years at Hogwarts.How will she find a way to manage balancing her own life, her studies, her budding relationship with close friend, Ben Copper, and the cursed vaults? What other mysteries about even herself will she uncover?
Relationships: Ben Copper (Hogwarts Mystery)/Original Female Character(s), Ben Copper/Player Character (Hogwarts Mystery), Ben Copper/Sadie Cromwell, Ben Copper/You, Penny Haywood/Tulip Karasu, Player Character/Ben Copper
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. The Cursebreaker

**Author's Note:**

> I know I’m supposed to be working on my Hunger Games fanfics but in my defence, I found this when I was looking for my list of ideas for that story and wanted to edit it. I wrote it over a year ago and figured I’d post it and see if there’s even interest.
> 
> For starters, I am not affiliated with J.K. Rowling nor do I support her. That is one reason I really like the Hogwarts Mystery storyline - she doesn’t have a hand in writing it!
> 
> Second, I have changed up the Hogwarts Mystery storyline as this and the list of ideas I wrote down for it were all written before Year Six came out so I’m sticking with my guns and keeping what I wrote because I like it. I fell in love with sweet Ben when he was my date to the celestial ball and I just couldn’t resist, he’s such a good match for Sadie.
> 
> Thirdly, I changed the characters’ stories a bit. They’re almost all generic cookie cutter characters and that’s boring so I made them more interesting.
> 
> Lastly, yes, another Hebridean character. I’m Hebridean, I speak some Scots Gaelic, I love reflecting my culture in my characters - it’s lots of fun! This Hebridean culture, however, will be a lot closer to actual Hebridean culture as opposed to the modified one that appears in my Hunger Games universes.
> 
> All in all, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! I have more chapters but they all need to be edited and I will get to them soon (even sooner if there’s interest)!

Life for young Benedick Copper was relatively ordinary — or at least it was until an owl brought a letter to his doorstep. But before that, everything in young Benedick’s life was ordinary. He had been born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northern England in the spring of 1973 to Sandrine and Rupert Copper. He had a little sister, Beatrice, born in the summer of 1977, and he went to school like any normal child. He was bullied by his classmates for being a late bloomer in a lot of things, including learning, and he was fearful of quite a lot of things. But Benedick Copper wasn’t an ordinary child, and that he knew. It started when he began to see the ghost of an elderly woman in his home, when no other members of his family could see her. He was four years old — Beatrice would soon be born in a couple of months — and he first saw her sitting in his father’s armchair working on some knitting.

His parents didn’t believe him, of course. They dismissed the elderly woman as an imaginary friend, but Benedick knew that she wasn’t a part of his imagination. And the fact that no one believed him made him fear her. She was a docile spirit, but Benedick feared so many things, so much so that his parents attempted to bring their young son to therapy to ‘sort out his issues’. “Why, he is a perfectly ordinary child,” said the therapist, but strange things kept happening. Benedick would find himself cornered by bullies and would close his eyes in fear, only to open them again and find himself on top of the school’s roof, the bullies running in fear of ‘the freak who can fly’. He once accidentally made a glass in his mother’s hand explode. He didn’t know how he did it, but he knew it was him.

For years, young Benedick thought that he was the oddest boy in the world, seemingly able to do things like magic, until similar things started happening to Beatrice as she got older. And then suddenly, Benedick didn’t feel so alone in the world. He was drawn to his sister’s side, wanting to protect her from the bullying that he’d received in school, and told her that she needed to ‘try and stop the strange things that are happening to her’. Of course, neither of them knew how, because accidental magic was very common with magical children. But Benedick and Beatrice didn’t know they were performing accidental magic because their parents were non-magic folk — muggles, as we call them in the magical world.

On his eleventh birthday, which was the eighteenth day of April, 1983, an owl flew in through their open window and dropped a letter straight in Benedick’s lap. It was written on old-fashioned parchment and fastened shut with a wax seal, and on the front, scrawled out in emerald green script, was young Mr. Benedick Copper’s name and his home address. The owl perched itself on top of his father’s armchair and patiently waited for young Benedick to open his letter, while Sandrine screamed for Rupert to ‘get that bloody bird out of her house’. Of course, we all know what that letter said. Benedick Copper had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he was to get schoolbooks, a uniform, a cauldron, parchment, a quill, scales, and a wand. But where would he get any of this stuff? The writer of the letter, a Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, informed him that he may find all of these things at Diagon Alley, which may be accessed through the Leaky Cauldron pub in London.

And so he went to the Leaky Cauldron in London, which was quite far away from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and this part of the story is where I come in. Every summer, young muggleborns go to the Leaky Cauldron in search of Diagon Alley, afraid to ask for help in fear that they sound mad. To the muggles of the world they grew up in, they would indeed sound mad, and they wouldn’t know any better to think that the relatively-normally-dressed patrons of the Leaky Cauldron were actually wizards. You see, the Leaky Cauldron is the gateway to Diagon Alley, but in order for it to serve as the gateway between the muggle world and the Wizarding war, it must be accessible by both wizards  _ and _ muggles. Wizards are expected to dress in muggle attire, so as not to draw attention to themselves as they dine and drink at the pub. My mother worked at the Leaky Cauldron in the summers - during the usual school year, she homeschooled both myself and my brother. Once my brother, who is six years my senior, went off to Hogwarts, all she had to worry about was me. I had always been a very curious and active little thing, or so she says, and I liked to go with her to the Leaky Cauldron and direct first year muggleborns to Diagon Alley. We lived in Scotland, Mum and I, so it was quite a long haul for us.

I overheard the conversation between Benedick Copper and another muggleborn of our year, Marcus Tanner. “I don’t even know where Diagon Alley is, it isn’t on any map I’ve ever seen! And I’ve lived in London my whole life!” said Marcus Tanner.

“I’ve never even been to London until now. I wonder how they expect us to find it? I thought it was a joke at first, but now that I know that you got the same letter I did and are equally as confused, I feel better,” said Benedick to Marcus.

“Yes, it is very strange, isn’t it?” I said to the two muggleborn boys, leaning into their conversation. “Looking for Diagon Alley, are we?”

“Yes, are you looking for it, too?” asked Marcus.

“I’ve known where Diagon Alley is me whole life,” I told them. “ _ I’m _ a witch, and so is me mum and so was me dad, too, so I’ve been to Diagon Alley many times. It’s where all the wizards and witches do shopping!”

“You sound crazy,” said Marcus.

“Maybe I do, but you got a letter saying to you to go to Diagon Alley and here I am trying to say to you how to get there,” I told them. “What’re your names?”

“I’m Marcus Tanner,” said Marcus.

“And I’m Benedick Copper, but you can call me Ben. I prefer it,” said Ben. I smiled at the brown-haired Marcus and the fair-haired Ben. I myself had dark brown hair with a natural wave and fair skin, with brilliant blue eyes that came from many generations of pureblood magical witches and wizards. I was born pureblood to a pureblood witch from the McGwyn family and a pureblood wizard from the Cromwell family.

“Nice to meet you, Marcus Tanner and Ben Copper, I am Sadie Cromwell,” I told them. “Come on, I’ll show you how to get to Diagon Alley.” I took them to a back room, their families following closely behind, and I turned to face them.

“It’s a brick wall,” said Ben’s little sister, disappointed in what she was seeing.

“I know very well that it is a brick wall, but it’s not just any  _ ordinary _ brick wall. This is entrance to Diagon Alley, and you need to have a wand to get in,” I told the families.

“But isn’t that why we’re here? To get a wand? How are we supposed to get into Diagon Alley without a wand if we don’t even  _ have _ a wand yet? It’s a catch-22!” Marcus asked me.

“Simple, you ask a witch or a wizard who does, and I am a witch who has a wand,” I said, pulling out my own. It was acacia wood, slightly springy and thirteen and a half inches with a unicorn hair core. It was light in colour, had leaves carved into it and had a comfortable handle with a Celtic knot pattern on it. Still is, I suppose, as I still own this beautiful wand. I turned to the brick wall and, with my wand, tapped the bricks that would open the doorway to Diagon Alley. The bricks shifted and parted, revealing the entryway into the magical world. The two muggle families stood behind me in awe at the reveal of the magical world before them, and I turned back to them and smiled. “Flourish and Blott’s is where you will find books, Madame Malkin’s is where the robes are, Potage’s Cauldron Shop is where you’ll find the cauldron and the scales, and across street is the Apothecary which will get your potions ingredients. Gringott’s is where you’ll go to exchange your muggle money for Wizarding money-”

“Hold on, what did you call us?” asked Rupert Copper, a very proud and hardworking man.

“Oh, is not offensive term. A muggle is what we in Wizarding world call non-magic people. It is a lot easier to say than ‘non-magic people’,” I explained. “Anyway, there is also the Magical Menagerie where you can get pet — we’re allowed an owl, a cat or a toad at Hogwarts — and Ollivander’s is where you’ll get wand. I’d suggest going there first, as a lot of first years are coming to get wands and Mr. Ollivander does like to take time in telling stories,” I told them. “Best of luck, and I’ll see you all at Platform 9 3/4.” I left them with more confused expressions on their faces, and I wouldn’t see either of them again until the Platform. “Get on all right?” I asked Ben Copper, who nervously tried to pack his things into a compartment on the Hogwarts Express.

“It was scary, Sadie! We had to run into a brick wall! I was sure we’d crash!” Ben told me fearfully, and I let out a laugh.

“Yes, it must be quite terrifying if you aren’t used to it. I was somewhat scared the first time I went through with me mum. I have an older brother... or rather... had... and when he went to Hogwarts, we went through barrier quite a bit,” I said. And so we were on our way to Hogwarts, joined in our compartment by another friend I had made in Diagon Alley called Rowan Khanna.

Most of you know my story, so I don’t need to go into immense detail about it. You’ll know that my brother, Jacob Cromwell, was expelled from Hogwarts for attempting to open the Cursed Vaults, something that I ought to have been expelled for but never was. You’ll know I met a Slytherin student, Merula Snyde, and made enemies with her (or at least, she believed it to be so. I, on the other hand, thought her an entitled brat who wasn’t used to being told no). You’ll know how Merula trapped me with Devil’s Snare and how the Hogwarts Gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, got me out. You'll know how Ben went missing in my second year and was found to be trapped in ice. You’ll know how I met Bill Weasley, who was a fourth year when I was a second year, and how we successfully battled the Ice Knight and found the first Cursed Vault, which held a broken wand and a book. Perhaps you’ll recall my third year, in which the school suffered from boggart attacks and where I found the next Cursed Vault in the restricted section of the library, facing a Voldemort boggart that I turned into a clown. In my fourth year, a sleepwalking curse affected the students which drew them to the Forbidden Forest and how I had the help of Patricia Rakepick, a real curse breaker. You’ll know how I was forced to serve detention in the kitchens, and how that failed to deter me from seeking out the Cursed Vaults and my brother. In year five, I continued to hunt down the vaults, successfully finding one with the aid of Patricia Rakepick, now Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, as well as the help of Bill and Charlie Weasley, Ben and Merula. And don’t forget about the friends I’d made over the years, of course.

As I said, you know my story, but you don’t know  _ me _ . My name is Sadestra Cromwell, but I am called Sadie, and I was born in the Hebrides of Scotland - the Isle of Barra, to be specific, or  _ Barraigh _ as we call it in our native language of Gaelic. I was born speaking the language, and in my younger years, was not as fluent in English as I am now, and I made many linguistic mistakes, as you may notice. Anywho, I am the daughter of Myrna McGwyn of the pureblood McGwyn family — we descend from Rowena Ravenclaw’s bloodline — and Victor Cromwell of the pureblood Cromwell family. Both families are famously Ravenclaw, so it made sense that I would be sorted into Ravenclaw - that, and I am curious about just about anything and love to learn. The name ‘Sadestra’ came from my father’s great grandmother, whom he had known for a brief time in his childhood but loved ever so dearly. We still live in the Outer Hebrides in an ancient, but small, stone castle. Hebridean Black dragons still live in the Hebrides, and attacks do happen every so often, so our Cromwell ancestors chose to live in a stone castle for preventative measures, but we are the first Cromwells to live in the Hebrides in three centuries. Many of the locals in Barra are muggles and very frequently, the ministry has had to come and wipe their memories of dragon attacks and repair their homes. There is a sort of a... stigmatism? I do not know the English word I’m trying to think of but in Gaelic, we call it  _ fìrinn _ . Anywho, there is a  _ thing _ about Outer Hebridean-born witches and wizards and how they are generally more powerful. Not many witches and wizards are born in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and my brother and I may truly be the first born, not moved to, in the Outer Hebrides in over a century. How true that is, I never really found out, but the rumour certainly added onto my eccentricity, for lack of a better word.

I had a brother called Jacob, but he was expelled from Hogwarts and never to be seen from again a couple of years before I would start my first year. As a result of my brother going missing, neither of my parents could cope with the news, or what it was said that he had done. My father drank a weedosoros potion, and it was I who discovered him very shortly before it took his life, and I sat with him as he suffered. At the time, I was nine years old. My mother brewed a forgetfulness potion, however, in her distress, she brewed it wrong and it affected her long term memory. She had very few memories of my father and no memories of my brother, and I had to work hard to get her to remember me or any of our family, and help her relearn magic so that she could return to being a functional member of the wizarding society. In the summers, she worked at the Leaky Cauldron and while I was at Hogwarts, she would stay with my cousin, Lauren, at her home in North Uist, also in the Outer Hebrides, and at the start of my third year, she got a job as an astronomy professor at Beauxbaton’s Academy of Magic in Southern France.

At the sorting ceremony, I was invisible, until my name was called, but I at least had a few ahead of me before I was revealed and followed by gasps and stares. I later would befriend most of my class, with a few being above or below me in years.

“Ali, Badeea,” called the Deputy Headmistress, and a fair, olive-skinned girl with thick dark hair climbed the steps. The following year, she started wearing a headscarf called a hijab, explaining that over the summer, she had ‘become a woman’ and now had to wear a covering over her head around ‘men that could potentially be her husband’. She was of Arabic descent who loved to paint magical portraits. Badeea was an expert in all things art related and when the portrait curse haunted the halls of Hogwarts in my fifth year, Badeea was the first person I went to for her expertise on portraits. She was so unbelievably kind, and quite eccentric, and I was excited to share a dormitory with her when she was sorted into Ravenclaw.

“Caplan, Diego,” said McGonagall, calling the next name on the list, and a boy of Spanish descent climbed the stairs to sit on the stool. Diego was a charming boy whose parents, both pureblood, came from Spain and were renowned master duellists, hence their son being a rather skilled duellist himself. Diego taught me everything I needed to know when it came to duelling and I can thank him for any and all duelling skills I possess. He was also a very skilled dancer and was a charmer to all the girls he met. He now tours Europe competing in duelling competitions, usually winning thanks to his exceptional skills. In his time at Hogwarts, he was in Hufflepuff house.

“Copper, Benedick,” said McGonagall. This was my friend, and I really hoped he would be sorted into Ravenclaw house, but alas, he was sorted into Gryffindor. It certainly seemed strange knowing that he was a bit nervous, but I had faith that he would soon prove that he belonged in Gryffindor.

“Cromwell, Sadestra.” At the mention of my name, there were a few gasps, and I tried not to look disturbed.

“I thought the Cromwells were all dead,” I heard one boy whisper as I made my way to the stool.

“Of course not, just old man Cromwell!” said another.

“I knew it was only a matter of time before Cromwell’s sister came,” said a girl. I proudly sat on the stool and had the sorting hat lowered to my head.

“Cromwell meets McGwyn, how fascinating,” said the hat. “You are full of mystery, Sadie Cromwell. I can see inside your head, but there is fog - everywhere. Mind where your loyalties lay, both your own and those around you. Best to put you where you belong - Ravenclaw!” There wasn’t much applause, except from a few supportive Hufflepuffa and of course, the Ravenclaw table, but the Great Hall didn’t erupt like it had for others before me.

“Egwu, Andre,” said McGonagall, diffusing May tension and wandering eyes as I made my way to the Ravenclaw table, and a boy of African descent climbed the steps to the stool. Andre would become my stylish friend who both loved fashion and quidditch. He was the keeper of the Ravenclaw quidditch team and we played many matches together, until I chose to leave the team in my seventh year - quidditch was never something I really held near to my heart, but I was fairly decent as a chaser. Andre was always my go-to choice for when I needed fashion advice or a new outfit and he was always glad to put me into something stylish. I was glad he was sorted into Ravenclaw, and when he came to the table, he sat a few seats down from me and waved with a friendly smile, which I returned.

“Haywood, Penelope,” said McGonagall, and a young cherry girl with hair the colour of sunshine climbed up to the stool. Penelope Haywood, called Penny, was the sweetest girl in our year. She was known to be the most popular girl in our year for her kindness, but her real talents lay not in socialisation, but in potioneering. Penny Haywood was, and remains to be, the most skilled potioneer that I have ever had the privilege to know. Born in the highlands of Scotland, her fierce Scottish accent really contrasted with her sweet personality, but it was perhaps my favourite trait of hers - after all, us Scots stick together. It was Penny who introduced me to the art of Quidditch, as I had never truly been into sports, but I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. Penny was, unsurprisingly, sorted into Hufflepuff.

“Khanna, Rowan,” said McGonagall, announcing the name of my newfound friend. Rowan was an English girl of Indian descent that I met in Diagon Alley who loved to read and learn, and didn’t really want to be overly involved in my cursebreaking habits. At first, she wanted to do what she thought was right by helping me, but then began to think that we ought to listen to Professor Dumbledore and cease all cursebreaking activities. She’d rather focus on her goal of becoming the youngest professor at Hogwarts, a goal that she would never achieve. Like me, she was sorted into Ravenclaw, although she would be a Ravenclaw no matter what.

“Karasu, Tulip,” said McGonagall, and there were a few more gasps, but less than I received. I recognised the name Karasu from when my father worked at the Ministry - her parents were both stern Ministry workers, but nothing about their only daughter looked stern at all. When she climbed the steps to the stool, she had a smirk on her face, and the hat had warned her not to do anything funny. I knew that girl was fascinating from that moment on. Tulip would go on to become one of my closest friends as an adult. She was eccentric, clever, and everything a Ravenclaw ought to be, and like her nearest and dearest friend, Tonks, was a jokester who loved to play pranks. While Tonks was the braun of the pair’s marauding, Tulip was the brains behind each elaborate prank. Tulip always had the most eccentric and creative ideas, and like Tonks, she was always willing to help those close to her when they were in need. Being the daughter of two ministry officials, she had a lot to live up to, and she never allowed herself to be viewed as a smaller version of her parents, causing trouble to ensure that she was the exact opposite of them. Her troublemaking skills were always handy when in need of them. I was glad to see her sorted into Ravenclaw. I suppose another reason I was fond of her was the fact that she didn’t gawk over me like everyone else had.

“Kim, Jae,” said McGonagall. Jae Kim became my friend in our fifth year, and we’d met doing detention together in the kitchens. He was sorted into Gryffindor, and it was unusual to me that he be in Gryffindor considering he was incredibly resourceful, always finding illegal magical artefacts from Knockturn Alley and selling them to Hogwarts students (hence why he was in detention). Perhaps the bravery and boldness that came with selling illegal items to students was what made him a Gryffindor. Jae was a good and loyal friend, and while he was always looking out for himself before other people, he could still be counted on.

“Lee, Barnaby,” said McGonagall, and a surly boy with a broad frame made his way to the stool. Barnaby Lee, though intimidating at first glance, was the sweetest Slytherin I had ever met, although perhaps not the sharpest of the fangs in the ingredients box. Barnaby was a little dumb in most things, however, when it came to creatures, he was one of the smartest men I knew. He was very strong and came from a long line of pureblood Slytherins, his father having been a Death Eater and his mother simply wanting what was best for her son. He was handsome, I’ll give him that, and he was perhaps the most loyal friend I’d ever had. Blindly loyal, maybe, considering his loyalties first lay with Merula Snyde, who treated him rather poorly, before switching his loyalties to me in our third year. Before that, he was unkind to me and my friends and was a persistent bully to Ben, but mostly at Merula’s bidding. When alone, Barnaby never uttered a negative word or thought.

“Lobosca, Chiara,” said McGonagall as a white-haired girl with a kind face left the crowd of first years for the stool. Chiara was a sweet Hufflepuff with a caring heart, but had one rather major flaw — she was a werewolf. And I wouldn’t really call it a ‘flaw’, but it seriously impacted her ability to find and keep a job due to the wizarding world’s prejudice against werewolves. She’d been attacked by Fenrir Greyback as a child and as a result, feared herself in her werewolf state. She had wanted to become a healer, or a magical nurse, but her status as a werewolf prevented her from keeping the job for very long. Chiara would later join the Order of the Phoenix, where she would find company with fellow werewolf, Remus Lupin. Despite her monthly ill temperament, there was no one kinder than Chiara, and perhaps no one more lonely (yes, even more lonely than Talbott - he chose to be alone and enjoyed it, while Chiara isolated herself due to fear of hurting someone close to her).

“McPherson, Murphy,” said McGonagall as a young boy in a wheelchair made his way to the stairs. He glanced up first at McGonagall, wondering how he was going to get up those stairs, as Hogwarts was not at all handicap-friendly. She glanced down at him, then with a wave of her wand, levitated his chair up the stairs. Murphy was muggleborn and once confided in me that when he’d learned that he was magic, he thought the magic world may cure his disability, but alas, magic could only go so far. Magic could regrow bones, but it couldn’t fix paralysis. Murphy had what the muggles called spina bifida and he was told he wouldn’t live past the age of twelve - he was eleven at this point. He’d quickly learned how to levitate his chair up the stairs and he made quick friends with Madam Pomfrey, who’s magic likely helped prolong his life. Murphy would grow up to become a quidditch announcer, given that he could not play due to his physical disability. He loved football before that and fell in love with quidditch the moment he saw his first game, desperately wanting to become involved. He was sorted into Gryffindor, and is it any surprise. Anyone with the strength that Murphy had had to have been brave as well.

“Murk, Ismelda,” said McGonagall, and a pale, vampiric-looking girl with her black hair climbed the steps. Ismelda was a very strange girl who was sorted into Slytherin, and she was friends with Merula Snyde. She liked dark and disturbing things, but never caused them, and grew up to become one of those frightening witches that haunted the streets of Knockturn Alley, but she was all bark and no bite - completely harmless, just visually unsettling. She admired history for the bloodbath that history brought and while she appeared cold and unfeeling, in truth, she had a heart that she wouldn’t let anyone touch.

“Snyde, Merula,” said McGonagall. Snide indeed, the face on the girl who approached the stool was snobbish and stuck up, and she was immediately sorted into Slytherin. Merula and I were not friends until we were older, and she was always rather spoiled and childish - but for what it’s worth, she grew up a little bit. Hailing from a pureblood Slytherin family in East Anglia, Merula was the daughter of two death eaters who spent the better part of Merula’s life in Azkaban, the wizarding prison guarded by dementors. She was spoiled and bratty, but on the inside, all she wanted was to be wanted and cared for. It was hard to get close to her, and perhaps I never did, even as adults, but I would consider her a near and dear friend that I got to watch grow from an entitled spoiled brat to a mature woman. She would grow kinder, but she always seemed to crave attention - can she be blamed? As she left the stool, she looked at me and gave me a smirk, a flicker of jealousy glowing in her violet eyes, and then she made her way to the Slytherin table.

“Tonks, Nymphadora,” said McGonagall, and a chipper-looking brown-haired lass climbed the steps. Before the hat was placed on her head, she smiled proudly out at the room and suddenly, her hair turned bright pink, eliciting gasps and surprised whispers from the crowd in the Great Hall. This girl, who preferred to be called by her surname of Tonks, was one of the funniest and most loyal women I have ever had the privilege to know. Tonks was sorted into Hufflepuff house, and embodied everything a Hufflepuff ought to be, except with, perhaps, some Gryffindor traits mixed in as well. She was bold and fearless as well, but her fierce loyalty outweighed her boldness, thus proving her a perfect fit for Hufflepuff. Tonks was a prankster and enjoyed playing jokes and being silly, and on top of all of that, Tonks was what was called a metamorphmagus, which granted her the ability to change her appearance at will. In her youth, she sported a short bright pink hairstyle that she would later grow out and change to a charming shade of lavender as an adult. She could read people even without the ability of a legilimens, and she would always be the first on the scene to help when one of her friends was in need. She would grow up to become an Auror that I would work with at the Ministry of Magic, and first with the MACUSA Special Ops - but I’ll get into that later.

“Tuttle, Lizania,” said McGonagall, and a girl of African descent, but born and bred English, made his way up to the stool. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone elbow Andre, who only shook his head and tried to give the kid a friendly smile, but it was clear that the action bothered him. Lizania, called Liz by her friends and ‘Lizard’ by those who mocked her, was the first friend I’d go to if I had questions about magical creatures. She was perhaps the kindest Slytherin girl I’d ever known with a passion for magizoology and an admiration for Newt Scamander (who happened to be in my family tree — he was the great uncle to my cousin, Lauren McGwyn, who was the granddaughter of Newt’s infamous potioneer sister, Athena Scamander). She and Barnaby made excellent friends over their shared love of magical creatures.

“Weasley, Charles,” said McGonagall, and a red-haired boy climbed the steps. He was kindly, freckled and waved to someone at the Gryffindor table - another redhead - before sitting down on the stool. Charlie was a very near and dear friend with a love of all things dragons as well as his family, and a fierce loyalty to Gryffindor house, where he was sorted along with his brother, Bill, whom he had waved at. He was handsome, too, and many girls in our year and below wanted to claim him as their own, however, Charlie only had eyes for dragons. He was fiercely loyal, independent, reasonable and very smart. He was the seeker for the Gryffindor quidditch team and many times over the years, we faced each other in a match - sort of. The two of us were after different balls in the game. Charlie stood by my side even when it seemed like no one else did, and we still maintain correspondence by owl to this day.

“Winger, Talbott,” said McGonagall as a boy with olive skin made his way to the stool. He seemed quiet and shy, and I would learn why later when we became friends in our fourth year. Talbott was a friend I had to work hard to make. Hailing from Ravenclaw house, Talbott was very quiet and kept to himself, mostly because he viewed himself as someone who liked to be alone. His mother had been killed by death eaters when he was young, inspiring his desire to be an auror as an adult. He chose to become an auror in France instead of England, but we still had many chances to work together. Talbott helped me learn to become an animagus, as he was himself, and both of us took the form of birds.

That does it for my friends in my year - I had plenty of friends in other years as well. Orion Amari, for starters, was the Ravenclaw quidditch captain who was two years my senior in my days as a quidditch player and he was every bit eccentric that Ravenclaw house embodied. He was of Indian descent and, like Ben, had been muggleborn. He was orphaned and, as I learned later, was homeless when he wasn’t at Hogwarts, and perhaps that shaped him into the brilliant man he grew up to become. He valued peace and unity and wanted our team to be level-headed, and those views are definitely a part of what led our team to victory. He later became a player for the Caerphilly Catapults, a Welsh team in the British and Irish Quidditch League. Occasionally, we’ll still bump into each other or send letters.

Bill Weasley is a man that I still work with even today. In our youth, he was a dear friend of mine that I had met when I was in my first year and he was in his third. In our second and fourth years, we went to the Ice Vault together and fought off the Ice Knight before finally entering the vault, and it was my tendency to search for cursed vaults that led to Bill’s passion and talent for cursebreaking. He was everything a Gryffindor ought to be — bold, brave, charming, fearless, headstrong, confident — all things that would assist him as a cursebreaker. He graduated from Hogwarts in my fifth year, which would be 1989, and went straight to Gringotts to work as a cursebreaker.

Skye Parkin was my quidditch loving friend who was the daughter of a renowned quidditch player of the Wigtown Wanderers, a Scottish team that was favoured by Penny. Though she was sorted into Gryffindor house, and was one year below me, she helped me become a better quidditch player and led Ravenclaw house to the quidditch cup several times in my days as a quidditch player. She was very often hotheaded and frustrates me frequently, but I still considered her my friend, although we don’t talk much nowadays.

Erika Rath was one year above me and she was a quiet gentle giant. She was from Slytherin and played beater on the Slytherin quidditch team, and she was a fierce beater at that. Thanks to Skye and a rumour, we almost didn’t become friends, but Erika had a kind side that she only showed to those she trusted, and I was glad to be one of those people. She would later become a beater on the English National Team during the World Cup and, occasionally, for the Tutshill Tornadoes.

Beatrice Haywood, also called Bea, was a first year when I was a fifth year and was Penny’s younger sister. She was trapped in a portrait for most of her first year, poor thing, and received lasting PTSD from being so alone for so long. She befriended Ismelda Murk, who was the total opposite of sweet graceful Penny, and became reckless.

Beatrice Copper, Ben’s younger sister who was in the same year as Bea (I spent a lot more time with Beatrice than Bea, hence why I call Penny’s sister ‘Bea’ still), became sort of my protege, for lack of a better word. She was sorted into Ravenclaw, which was quite a surprise to her brother, and immediately latched herself onto me. Ben and I had been close friends, so Beatrice knew me and was comfortable with me, and Ben trusted me to take care of his sister. Beatrice turned out to be quite spunky and clever, quite a striking difference from her older brother.

And so, those were my friends throughout Hogwarts. Ben, Penny, Rowan, Barnaby, Charlie, Bill, Tonks, Tulip, Andre, Liz, Badeea, Jae, Diego, Chiara, Talbott, Merula, Ismelda, Skye, Orion, Murphy, Erika, Bea and Beatrice. With the exception of Bill, Orion, Skye, Bea and Beatrice, who weren’t in my year, we started Hogwarts in the year 1983, and would finish in the year 1991 — the same year that Harry Potter would start at Hogwarts that September.

As I’ve stated earlier, most of you who are here know my story and know of my hunts for the cursed vaults, but they weren’t all I did in my days at Hogwarts. Perhaps I’ll start my story now in the middle of my third year, in early February, as the school got ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the way that only a large group of teenagers could be expected to celebrate it...


	2. Seaside, Lavender and Something Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sadie and her friends fill out a Valentine's Day Match questionnaire, and in holiday spirit, study amortentia. The students find their matches, and Sadie is somewhat surprised, but pleased, to find hers.

Valentine’s Day of 1986 would be the Valentine’s Day of my third year at Hogwarts. I was in the middle of trying to find out the location of the cursed vault that was releasing boggarts all throughout the castle and terrifying students, but it was hard to focus with all the excitement of the upcoming Valentine’s Day. “Come on, Sadie! Fill it out! It’ll be fun!” Penny Haywood said to me, shoving a piece of parchment in my face over breakfast one chilly February morning. I took it and glanced at it.

“‘Find your Valentine’s Day match by completing this questionnaire and submitting it by owl to Madam Puddifoot’s and enter to win a chance for a free Valentine’s Day brunch upon your next trip to Hogsmeade’,” I read. “No thank you,  _ tha fuaimean gòrach. _ Here you are.” As I mentioned, I fluently speak Scots Gaelic in addition to English, and given that it was the first language I learned, I frequently include it in things that I say. I wouldn’t be me without my first natural language! That, and I often can’t remember the word in English.

“I... don’t know wha’ tha’ means...”

“Sounds stupid.”

“Come on, Sadie, it could be fun! Imagine findin’ yer one true love through this li’le matchin’ game! Don’t ye think?” she said to me in her highlands Scottish accent, and I chuckled lightly.

“I haven’t the time, Penny. I’ve got to find this bloody vault because the teachers sure as hell aren’t doing anything about it,” I said. My accent, like Penny’s, was Scottish, but the Hebrides had a much more muted accent compared to the highlands.

“But we’re no closer te findin’ it than we were before the holidays! Take a break, why don’t ye? Have a wee bit of fun and fill it out! You never know who you’ll get matched weth!” Penny said rather persuasively, and I let out a sigh.

“And what if I get placed with someone I’m not compatible with? Like the Gryffindor who’s in third year now and can’t fer the life of him get the bloody levitation charm correct? Or even worse, what if I get Merula or Ismelda?” I replied.

“Ye never know wha’ they’re like when you really ge’ te know them! Tha’ Gryffindor student could be the sweetest lad in school, and who knows, maybe Merula would look at ye differently if ye find a way inte her heart?” Penny asked me.

“You see the good in everyone, don’t you, Penny?” I asked her. Merula, I was convinced, did not have a heart. She frequently mocked me for my mother going mad and my father taking his life, all on top of being mocked for my brother’s involvement with the vaults and disappearance. And as if it was icing on the cake, I heard plenty of comments about how my being Hebridean wouldn’t be enough to make me more powerful than she was (even though, again, I’ve never actually seen evidence of my heritage influencing my powers).

“Of course she does, Sadie Cromwell, that’s why Penny is so beloved at Hogwarts,” chimed in Tulip Karasu, who was sitting close by. She was a relatively new friend of mine that year.

“Will  _ you _ fill one of these out, Tulip?” I asked her, and she shook her head.

“Nope. I’ve got everything I need right here,” she said, raising her pet toad, Dennis, in one hand.

“Tulip, ye can’t bring yer pets te the table! Tha’s disgustan’!” said Penny in a scolding tone, and she scowled and put him back in her robes.

“Dennis deserves to eat like a king, too!” she spat back, resuming her breakfast. I glanced at the parchment in front of me.

“Righ’... It says start with me house and year...” I said, reading the parchment, and I pulled a quill and ink pot out of my bag, dipped the quill into the ink, and scribbled ‘Ravenclaw’ and ‘Year 3’ onto the parchment. “Won’t it ask fer me name?”

“It’s anonymous, Sadie. They don’t want te know yer name. See tha’ number there in the top righ’ corner? Tha’s the number ye’ll have te remember because tha’s the number your match will be given along with some things from yer form and they’ll have te find ye,” Penny explained.

“Righ’,” I said. “‘What is your favourite book?’ Hmm... I dare say, I rather like Shakespeare but I’m not sure which of his plays are my favourite. Other than tha’, I don’t think I have a favourite book...”

“So just write, ‘Shakespeare’s works’ and Ah’m sure it’ll be fine,” Penny replied, so I did.

“Favourite hobbies... hmm... Er... What is this word? Hobbies?” I asked, not recognising the word.

“Things that you like to do,” said Tulip.

“Ah,  _ cur-seachad _ . Hobbies,” I repeated. “What are my hobbies?”

“Quidditch?”

“That's  _ your _ favourite hobbies,” I said with a chuckle.

“Hobbies is plural. Hobby is singular,” said Fulip.

“ _ Ge be dè! _ I do not care!” I said back,and then I looked down at the parchment again. “I’m not sure, honestly... Perhaps exploring, being with mates, listening te music and maybe... Oh, I dunno... Being out in nature watching the stars in the night sky?”

“How romantic! Write it down!” Penny said to me, and I chuckled gently, scribbling it all down.

“‘What is your favourite class?’ Hmm... I rather like Astronomy, and, keep the hied with me fer this one, History of Magic,” I replied.

“Haud yer wheesht! Tha’ class doesn’t put ye te sleep?” Penny exclaimed.

“Professor Binns might, but the subject itself doesn’t,” I said, scribbling it down on the parchment. “‘What’s yer favourite sweet?’ Hmm... I rather like pumpkin pasties...”

“This one asks if ye like sports or not,” Penny said as I wrote down ‘pumpkin pasties’.

“Nope,” I said, scribbling that down, too.

“But yer on the Ravenclaw quidditch team!” Penny exclaimed.

“Fer you, Andre, Murphy, Orion and Skye. It doesn’t mean I dedicate me life to it,” I told her. “And Skye isn’t even on the Ravenclaw team... ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Hmm...”

“An auror?” Penny asked me.

“ _ Òbh òbh _ ,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Sadie Cromwell doesn’t want to be an auror! Why would she do that when she could be a cursebreaker?” Tulip chimed in.

“Why would I want te be a cursebreaker when I spent me entire Hogwarts career as a cursebreaker?” I asked them.

“Ha!” Penny exclaimed.

“And I don’t want to be an auror, either. No, I want to do somethin’ a wee bit more peaceful... like be an author or an herbologist or even an astronomer or something. Something less violent,” I said, scribbling all of those things down.

“Ye’d be good as an auror,” said Penny.

“Or a cursebreaker!” said Tulip.

“Maybe so, but it’s not what I  _ want _ te do,” I said. “‘What is your favourite magical creature?’ Er... I suppose owls and cats don’t count?”

“‘Fraid not, muggles can have ‘em, too,” Penny replied.

“The occamy, then. They’re gorgeous and it’s incredible how they can grow and shrink depending on their surroundings. My cousin had one as a pet that was gifted to her by her great uncle when she graduated from Hogwarts,” I said.

“I didn’t know people could keep occamies as pets,” Tulip said.

“When your great uncle is Newt Scamander, I’m sure the ministry makes exceptions,” I said as I wrote down ‘occamy’ on the parchment. ‘What is your favourite potion?’”

“Weedosoros,” said Tulip with a chuckle. I, on the other hand, didn’t exactly find it very funny.

“I rather like Draught of Peace,” I said firmly, pretending I didn’t hear that. “I’ve had to brew it for me mum a lot, when me dad... yeah. Draught of Peace,” I said, scribbling that down. “Favourite spell? I’m in me third year, I don’t even know many spells.”

“Mine is the water jet charm. Producing water is so useful,” Penny said.

“I think I like the patronus charm. It’s a beautiful spell and protects from dementors,” I said, and then I wrote it down. “Once, a death eater emerged from hidin’ te cause trouble in the Outer Hebrides, he was searching for Harry Potter. I don’t know why he came to the Hebrides. My cousin knew his parents, tha’s about it. I mean, she was wanted by the death eaters, too, I suppose.” My cousin, Lauren McGwyn, wanted to go into magizoology and herbology when she graduated from Hogwarts in 1978 and while she was away, her mother had come out of hiding and had been attacked and murdered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (I don’t fear his name, but I know some do) in early 1981. Her husband and Lauren’s father had been his friend when they were at Hogwarts in the 1940’s and had been murdered by him long before, hence why Lauren and her mother were targeted. I continued my story to Penny and Tulip. “Because it is known that me cousin was living in the Hebrides, this death eater came looking fer her, and the ministry sent dementors to find him and me mother insisted I learn the Patronus charm. They never came to Barra, but knowin’ they were in the Hebrides was frightening enough.”

“That  _ is _ terrifying. My parents, who work for the ministry, have told me that dementors are nothing to be messed with. They’re terrifying,” Tulip said.

“I couldn’t do a corporeal patronus at the time, but I was able to cast the spell. I’m kind of glad I couldn’t. A ten year old should never have to use it,” I said. “Anyway... ‘Do you have a preference for what house your match is in?’”

“No Slytherins,” said Tulip.

“Not all Slytherins are bad, Tulip! I don’t know if ye’ve met Liz Tuttle or not, but she’s as sweet as can be and she’s in Slytherin,” Penny told her.

“Barnaby Lee has also really turned around since we befriended him,” I said, and then I glanced back down at the parchment. “I think limiting meself te certain houses takes the fun of the mystery out of it, so I’m going to say ‘no’.” I scribbled it down. The parchment also asked about age, and considering I was only thirteen, I asked to be paired with third through fifth years. Once I was finished, I sealed it up and sent it off to Madam Puddifoot’s, and then we awaited the day before Valentine’s Day, which would be the day that the results were posted back to us.

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, we started learning some Valentine’s Day-themed magic and potions. In Transfiguration, we learned the love bird to love letter transfiguration, which was quite fun. Tulip’s love letter said the words, ‘I love you, Dennis’, and she was unfortunately laughed at by other students. But Tulip didn’t care. She was eccentric and she knew it and a couple of laughs here and there didn’t bother her. And besides, with her good friend, Nymphadora Tonks, it would be her who had the last laugh, anyway. Everyone who laughed at her woke up to belch powder in their morning tea.

In potions, we learned about Amortentia, a very potent love potion. In that class with me were Andre, Rowan, Barnaby, Merula, Ismelda, Liz Tuttle, Ben and Charlie, and all of us crowded around the cauldron to see what it was that we smelled.

“I smell cedar and... and... I don’t know what that smell is?” Barnaby said, rather perplexed. “It kind of smells like... flowers?” I was a little concerned, because I had on some lavender essential oils that I used almost like a perfume, but perhaps he was smelling that from me and not the potion. He was standing right beside me, after all.

“I can smell animals... That doesn’t surprise me in the least!” said Liz Tuttle, who had a love for animals.

“I'm not saying what I can smell,” said Merula with anger. “What about you, Cromwell? Huh? What do  _ you _ smell?” I gave it a sniff.

“Ocean air, it reminds me of home...” I gave it another sniff. “Lavender as well...” And another. “And... and something else... I’m not sure what it is...” It smelled like... cologne, maybe? Or soap? It had a hint of evergreen in it, or so I thought, but I couldn’t be so sure. “I’m not sure what tha’ last scent is... I don’t think I’ve ever smelled it before.”

“Does it smell like someone in this room, Sadie?” asked Rowan excitedly as I sniffed the potion again.

“I’m not sure, and I’m not going around sniffing everyone to find out,” I said with a gentle chuckle.

“What about you, Ben? What do you smell?” Rowan asked him. Ben was quiet and standing away from the cauldron, but upon having attention drawn to him, he stepped forward to give it a sniff, and then stepped back.

“Uh... flowers? I dunno... what kind... maybe... maybe a touch of mint, too... and... and the smell of burning wood...” he said meekly.

“Mint, flowers and burning wood. How pathetic,” Merula said with a laugh.

“That’s no different from everyone else’s scents,” I told her. “If ye think Ben’s are so funny, then what’s yours, hmm? Why don’t ye tell us?” I asked her, and she glared at me.

“I’m not telling  _ you _ anything!” she snapped at me.

“Well, then it sounds to me like yer laughing at Ben just te laugh at him, but ye have no real reason,” I told her, and I turned to Rowan. “What about you? What do you smell, Rowan?”

“Lemons and wood, and something else but I’m not sure what it is, either,” Rowan said, trying her best to figure out the third scent.

“I smell grass, lots of grass, like the grass in a quidditch pitch, and the smell of broom polish,” said Andre, happily taking in the scents of amortentia.

“Because all Andre likes is quidditch,” said Merula.

“At least I was able to make the quidditch team, Merula,” said Andre, pointing out that Merula had failed to make the team when she tried out, and the group let out a chuckle while she glared at him. After we all wrote down what we smelled and discussed the dangers of amortentia — how it created fake love and that those conceived under it could never experience love — class was dismissed, and Rowan and I walked out into the corridor.

“I think that’s interesting how a potion can smell like what attracts you most, but I still don’t know what that other scent was that I smelled,” Rowan was saying.

“Maybe ye’ll know it someday, but just not today. I smelled something funny I didn’t recognise, too, but maybe I will soon,” I said to her.

“...of all people to fill out a Valentine’s Day match, you think  _ you’ll  _ get one? Don’t make me laugh!” came the sound of Merula’s voice, and I stopped, stopping Rowan along with me.

“What’s going on-” Rowan began, but then we both looked down a corridor and spotted Merula and Ismelda cornering Ben.

“I-I don’t know! I just th-thought I’d try it! See what happens!” Ben cried, his voice cracking slightly.

“No one would  _ ever _ want to kiss you, let alone go on a date with  _ you _ , Copper. NO ONE. I swear, if Madam Puddifoot matches me with you, I’ll hex you until your nose falls off!” Merula snapped at him.

“Tha’s enough, Merula,” I snapped at her, and she turned to look at me.

“Well, if it isn’t Sadie Cromwell, breaker of curses and protector of losers,” she said rather snidely.

“Don't ye have training dummies to name after me and hex?” I asked her.

“Why do you care? You’re not hoping you’ll be matched with me, are you?” Merula asked me, and I scoffed. And that was relevant... how?

“Wherever do ye get such a ridiculous notion from? I swear, yer like a bloody overgrown toddler who’s angry she got told te stop!” I said. “C’mon, Ben, I wanted te ask ye about your astronomy class. I’m interested in taking it next term,” I said, grabbing Ben by the wrist and dragging him away from Merula. Once we were out of earshot, we stopped, Rowan glancing over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t following us. “Are ye all right?”

“Fine,” Ben muttered quietly. “I-I don’t know how she found out I sent in one of those  _ stupid _ valentines things. Maybe I shouldn’t have at all!”

“I sent one in, too, Ben, and I think it’s bloody ridiculous. And she sent one in, too, so I’m not sure why she thinks she’s any better than ye. Don’t worry about it, Ben,” I said calmly.

“Did you hear what else she said to me?” he asked me.

“Yes, and she’s wrong. She can’t predict yer future, she doesn’t even bloody pay attention in divination so how would she know?” I said, giving him a smile, and he gently smiled back.

“So... you said you wanted to take astronomy next term?” Ben asked me.

“I thought we were taking arithmancy together next year! It’s offered at the same time as astronomy,” Rowan said to me.

“Rowan, _ a charaid _ , I never agreed to that, and besides, I don’t like arithmancy,” I told her, and she rolled her eyes as I turned to Ben. “Yeah, I am... Er... I promised Rowan and Penny I’d study with them after potions, so I’d best be off but... maybe we can discuss it another time?”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Ben said with a smile, and we parted ways.

“At least you’re keeping  _ that _ promise,” Rowan said to me, and it was my turn to roll my eyes.

“Rowan, yer overreacting. I  _ never _ said I was going to take arithmancy with ye,” I told her. The week or so between that day and Valentine’s Day passed, and the thirteenth came. It was a Thursday, and with the morning post, all of the owls bearing all of the envelopes with people’s results came pouring in. Letters flew through the air being delivered to their intended recipient, and mine landed firmly in my hands as I caught it. Tulip, Rowan and Andre were seated with me at the Ravenclaw table and Andre and Rowan each received one as well, but Tulip did not.

“I said I didn’t submit one,” she said when we all looked at her. Andre was the first to open his, and he was excited.

“I’m looking for number 443!” he said, and he stood up. “IS ANYONE HERE NUMBER 443?” The Great Hall went silent as Andre stood up and shouted the number of his match, but no one came forward. “Huh, tough crowd. Maybe later?” he said, and he sat back down as the dull roar of the Great Hall resumed. Rowan then opened hers. 

“I’ve got number 349. I wonder who number 349 is?” she said, glancing around at nearby letters in hopes of catching the number. “What about you, Sadie? What’s yours?” I opened mine.

“My match is number 278,” I said.

“That’s a shame, part of me was hoping you’d be my match,” said Andre, giving me a smile and a wink.

“I’m not sure who mine is, but it says we have Shakespeare, astronomy, history of magic, a dislike of sports and pumpkin pasties in common,” I said.

“Wow, that’s a lot more than I have in common with mine. Mine just says we both like fashion and quidditch, but those are my two favourite things, so that’s good,” said Andre.

“Mine says reading, learning and all subjects. It must be a fellow Ravenclaw!” Rowan said excitedly, and all of a sudden, Penny ran over excitedly.

“Who’d ye get? Who’d ye get?” she exclaimed the whole way over, now out of breath. “I’m looking for number 467!”

“Are you 443?” asked Andre, glancing at his own paper.

“I am!” she said, and Andre gave her a smile.

“Well, hello there, Valentine!” he said.

“Yer me match? How wonderful! I’m glad it’s someone I know!” Penny said excitedly, sitting down at the table beside me. Andre was seated across the table from me. “What about you, Sadie? Did ye find them yet?”

“I just got me number, Penny! It’s number 278,” I said.

“I thought I heard that leviosa lad say somethin’ about a ‘78’ but I’m not sure if it’s  _ your _ 278,” Penny replied. We were joined again by another friend, this time it was Barnaby.

“I’ve got my number! Do you lot have your numbers?” he said excitedly.

“What’s yer number?” Penny asked him.

“185!” he said, showing it to Penny, who took it and flipped it over in his hands. “231!” He glanced at me. “Sadie, what’s your number?”

“278,” I told him, and he appeared rather dejected once I’d told him.

“I was hoping you’d be my match...”

“Don’t look so glum, Barnaby, maybe yer match is someone ye’ll like after all! Let’s see yer card,” Penny said, taking it and reading it. “They like magical creatures, tha’s good. Ye love magical creatures. It also looks like they like te be outside and ye both like Newt Scamander’s  _ Fantastic Beasts And Where Te Find Them _ so tha’s good! Want me to help ye find them after classes?” Barnaby nodded.

All the students could talk about for that entire day was who their match was. It didn’t matter who you were — everyone asked everyone what their number was. I was approached several times, but not once did someone come forward with the number ‘278’. Part of me feared that perhaps someone had the number but didn’t want me to be their match, with everything tied to me, and perhaps I’d never get to meet them, and a part of me just hoped that out of all the student body, I just had yet to find them yet. I didn’t know why I cared so much. I had way too much on my plate for a relationship anyway. At dinner, it was announced that we would be allowed to stay up a little later in hopes of finding our matches, but only in the clocktower courtyard.

There were maybe a hundred or so students out in the courtyard trying to find their matches. Penny, who had already found hers, was there to help people who were more shy to find their matches, including Barnaby, and managed to find his match in Liz Tuttle. I was told they hit it off quite quickly over their common interest of magical creatures. Rowan found hers in a Slytherin student called Thomas Ripley, a fourth year who was known to be quiet but did love to study. According to Penny, she’d been hoping for Ben and was somewhat disappointed in him not being her match, but she did get along with her match. From what I knew of Ben, he didn’t match on Rowan’s card.

I, on the other hand, had yet to find mine, and as the extra hour we had to find our matches dwindled down to mere minutes, I stepped out of the courtyard and happened upon Ben standing just above the long stairwell that led to the boathouse down below. “Hey, Ben,” I said, startling him slightly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean te startle ye.”

“That’s all right,” he said, turning back to face the lake as I joined him at his side.

“Any luck in findin’ yer match?” I asked him, and he let out a sigh.

“I wasn’t really looking, to be honest,” he replied.

“Why’s that?”

“Because of what Merula said... I don’t want to find out that she’s right.”

“But she  _ isn’t _ right, Ben. She doesn’t know a thing about ye, she was just trying to bring yer feelings down. It’s what bullies do.”

“I know, I’ve dealt with them my whole life.” A moment of silence passed between us.

“The stars are beautiful tonight. I can hardly remember such a clear night in Scottish skies, and I’ve lived here all me life.”

“Around here?”

“No, I’m from the Hebrides. Barra, te be more specific.  _ Fada bho an-seo _ ...”

“Ah, so that’s why that love potion smelled like salty ocean air to you.” I smiled and nodded.

“Yes, it reminds me of home.”

“And you... speak another language?”

“Three years, ye’ve known me, and yer just now making that observation?” I asked him in a teasing tone, and his cheeks flushed.

“Uh, well, uh... we, uh, didn’t really talk much, before... before now...”

“I’m pullin’ yer leg,  _ a charaid _ .”

“Oh...” Another moment of silence passed. “I can sort of smell mine now, rather faintly, but I can smell it. It kind of smells like... flowers, maybe. I’m not sure which. My mum liked flowers. Sunflowers, mostly, but I’m not sure they really have a smell.”

“Is yer mum...”

“Dead? Yeah... she died in the summer between my first and second year.”

“Ben... why didn’t ye say anything?”

“I didn’t want to burden anyone else with it. I heard Merula saying terrible things about your family. About your brother getting expelled and things about your parents... unkind things that I don’t wish to repeat. I don’t even know if they were true, but if they were, then you had enough problems and didn’t need mine, too.”

“If those things were something like ‘me dad poisoned himself and me mum lost her mind’ then unfortunately, she’s quite right. My father dosed himself with weedosoros and died right in front of me when I was nine, and in an effort to cope with me brother going missing and me father’s death, she brewed a faulty forgetfulness potion and drank it, and it destroyed her memory. I spent ages helpin’ her to try and regain her memories back. Some came back, mostly memories of me and some of Dad... but she’s forgotten my brother completely.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, that sounds terrible.”

“Yeah... Dad loved astronomy. He loved to gaze at the stars and show me all the constellations and tell me stories about ‘em.”

“I love it, too. There’s something peaceful and secure about the stars... I was fearful of a lot of things growing up, and looking at the stars was a way for me to calm myself down.”

“That’s a sweet reason to love the stars,” I said. I glanced over my shoulder at the now nearly empty courtyard. “Time’s almost up, and it seems both you and me haven’t found our matches.”

“I don’t even know why I signed up for it,” Ben said, pulling a folded up piece of parchment in his hands and looking at it. “I mean, who here likes history of magic? Everyone falls asleep in the ruddy class!”

“I rather like it. Maybe not Professor Binns, but I like the subject itself,” I told him. “If it makes ye feel any better, I put a muggle author down fer me favourite book. Shakespeare... No one at Hogwarts likes him. Hell, no one our age probably reads him. Even Rowan finds him a bore.”

“Shakespeare? You... you like Shakespeare?” Ben asked me, somewhat nervously, and I nodded.

“Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always loved him. There was an older woman back home - a muggle, as most people in the Hebrides are - and she used to have the scripts. She would read ‘em te me when I was young and then let me have ‘em when I was older. My favourite was  _ Much Ado About Nothing _ .”

“Really?” Ben asked, and I nodded. “My mum loved Shakespeare... I was named after Signor Benedick in  _ Much Ado _ , and my sister after Beatrice. I didn’t think anyone else here would like him, either...”

“I suppose we’re a bit different from the rest, then, aren’t we?” I asked him. Looking back, it was so obvious. How did I not realise it sooner? Another moment of silence passed, I oblivious to Ben’s nervous shifting beside me. “I don’t want te go back in... It’s a bit chilly out, but te see such a clear sky is so rare...”

“Y-yeah, it... it is,” Ben said, and I finally detected the nervousness in his voice and I glanced at him.

“Are ye all right?” I asked him, and he nodded.

“Y-yeah... fine...” he said.

“All right, then... Ye don’t sound fine, but I won’t push if you are not wanting to talk about it.” I turned my attention back to the lake as more moments of silence passed between us.

“S-Sadie...” Ben said, breaking the silence. “You didn’t happen to list p-pumpkin pasties as your... favourite sweet... did you?”

“I did. Why?” I asked him, still oblivious to the obvious.

“Er... well... I-I think that... I think we...” He let out a sigh. “I think we may be... matched...”

“Matched, ye say?” I asked him, and pulled out my own parchment. “Are ye 278?”

“Are you 337?” Ben asked me, and I glanced down at my own and nodded gently.

“So... We’re matched?” I asked, and Ben nervously nodded.

“W-we don’t have to... don’t have to do... anything about it, honestly. It’s fine, I-I won’t be bothered-”

“What are ye talking about? Of course we’re doing something about it,” I told him, taking his parchment and glancing at it, and I smiled gently. “Besides, it looks like ye’ve won the free brunch at Madam Puddifoot’s.”

“I’ve what now?” Ben asked, taking his parchment and looking at it. “I have?” I laughed gently.

“Yes, Ben, ye have! Hogsmeade trip’s this Saturday, and the brunch is at eleven. Will ye... will ye go with me?” It was Ben’s turn to gently smile, and he nodded.

“I... I’d love to,” he said. “ _ Sgoinneil _ . It’s a date then,” I said. As the hour was up, and Ben and I had finally found our matches, it was time to return to our dormitories. I’d decided ultimately not to tell Rowan who my match was, in fear that it would upset her, so I simply told her I hadn’t found mine. Rowan said her match was meeting her in the library and that was how they were going to spend their Valentine's Day weekend, so there was no chance of her running into Ben and me at Madam Puddifoot’s. In fact, none of our friends knew that Ben and I had been matched, so I had to find something to wear rather discreetly.


	3. Rose Petals and Teacakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sadie and Ben go on their date in Hogsmeade.

I found an old floral dress my mother had worn sometime in the late 60’s, and I ultimately settled on that for my date with Ben. Of course, I’d told everyone that I hadn’t found my date, so I had to hide it underneath my coat. “Why are you going if you don’t have a date, Sadie Cromwell?” Tulip asked me suspiciously.

“I like Hogsmeade, it’s a nice break from everything else,” I said, not meeting Tulip’s eyes. “Aren’t  _ you _ going?”

“To Zonko’s with Tonks. Does that count as a date?” she asked me.

“Sure, just don’t try and ruin anyone’s dates,” I replied.

“Actually, Tonks wanted to prank the winner of the brunch at Madame Puddifoot’s.” I paled slightly, and my eyes went wide.

“D-Don’t do that, it really isn’t funny to mess with someone’s date. And besides, isn’t Tonks banned from Madame Puddifoot’s after she broke all of those teacups?”

“She wasn’t banned, but it was highly suggested that she not go back,” Tulip said. She looked at me, and I tried not to meet her eyes. “We won’t prank the winner of the brunch.”

“That’s very kind of you-”

“I hope you enjoy your date there, Sadie Cromwell.” I stopped in my tracks, about to open my mouth to ask her how she knew. “Why else would you be going out without trousers in the middle of February?”

“...fair point...”

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. I don’t know why you don’t want our friends to know, but I won’t question it, and I won’t tell them, either.”

“Thanks, Tulip... I’d best be going, I don’t want them to think I’ve stood them up.” I rushed into the crowd, hoping not to be seen by any of my other friends, and then searched for Ben outside of Madame Puddifoot’s, but he was nowhere to be found. Was it actually me who was about to get stood up? Had Ben chickened out and ultimately decided that he didn’t want to go on this date with me? I waited another ten minutes to know for sure, shivering in the cold, and let out a sigh, about to walk away when I heard my name being called.

“Sadie!” I heard Ben say, and I turned to see him running towards me and smiled.

“There ye are! I was beginnin’ te think ye stood me up,” I said to him as he approached me. “What’s held you up, then?”

“You’d laugh at me if I told you,” Ben replied.

“I wouldn’t, honestly.” He paused a moment to catch his breath.

“I, uh... couldn’t decide what I wanted to wear... I kept putting things on and hating them and before I knew it, I was running late so I just grabbed something and threw it on... it doesn’t even match,” Ben told me, and I couldn't help but chuckle. “You said you wouldn’t laugh!”

“I’m not laughin’ at ye, Ben. I think it’s sweet,” I told him. “Come on, then, it’s cold out here. Me legs are bloody frozen!” It was his turn to smile, and he opened the door and guided me into the rather warm tea shop that smelled of freshly baked cookies and roses. Each table has a white tablecloth over it with a bouquet of roses in the middle and a candle right beside it, and right above each table was a small Cupid throwing rose petals over the tables. “It’s... cozy...”

“ _ Orchideous _ ,” I heard Ben mutter quietly under his breath, and when I turned to look at him, he handed me a beautiful bunch of white roses, forget-me-nots and lavender sprigs.

“Ben! It’s beautiful! How did you know these were my favourite flowers?” I asked him, accepting the bouquet.

“Uh... I thought I was trying to produce red roses...” Ben admitted.

“Well, perhaps you know me better than ye think ye do. Lavender is one of my favourite scents,” I told him.

“Really?” He leaned forward to smell the lavender, and his eyes went wide as a small realisation dawned on him.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah... fine... l-let’s just go and sit down,” he said, trying to distract me from what had just happened. We sat down at the table, the Cupid starting to throw more petals down on top of us both.

“That’s going to get annoying real fast,” I said, glancing up at it.

“Is there any way to stop them?” Ben asked me.

“I’m not sure... Shall we try  _ incedio _ on them?” I asked with a chuckle.

“I don’t think that would be very nice,” Ben replied.

“I’m only joking, but yes, I agree,” I said. We were plunged into a moment of silence as we both tried to come up with something to talk about.

“So... Did you hear Rowan got paired with a Slytherin boy and they have a date together in the library?”

“Yeah, she told me,” Ben replied. Another moment of silence passed between us. “She, uh... also told me that you said you never found your match.”

“Ben, I don’t want you to think anything bad about that. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable by going around telling everyone we matched. Did you tell anyone?”

“...no... But I also haven’t been asked by anyone except Rowan.”

“And what did you tell Rowan?”

“...that I didn’t find my match... sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed-”

“Ben, it’s fine. Just relax, all right? You’ve got nothing to be nervous about. I don’t bite, I promise,” I told him, reaching for his hand across the table and giving it a good squeeze.

“I, uh... just realised my coat is still on... its qu-quite warm in here...” He hesitated pulling his coat off.

“If it makes you feel any better, I feel quite the clown in this colourful hippie dress my mother wore when she was young and have been a bit nervous to take off my coat as well. If you take yours off, I’ll take mine off first,” I said, and he nodded nervously. I stood and removed my coat, and watched his eyes widen as I revealed the colourful floral late 60’s minidress underneath. “Oh, come on, it can’t be  _ that _ bad!”

“It’s not at all! Actually, it’s... it’s beautiful... it looks beautiful on you... you look beautiful... uh-uh I mean, uh...”

“Thank you, Ben,” I told him with a smile, hanging the coat on the back of my chair and sitting back down. “Your turn, then.”

“Right...” He, too, stood, and began to unbutton his coat, when he froze.

“Ben, are you-”

“I... I need a moment...” he said, and he rushed back out the front door. I let out a sigh, gave him a couple of minutes and then stood and followed him out the front door, finding him hiding between Madame Puddifoot’s and a residency right next door breathing heavily and panicking.

“Ben! Ben, it’s all right, what’s the matter?” I asked him, rushing to him and putting a hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down.

“I... I... I don’t know, I... I can’t handle this, I’m too afraid of this and everything and being judged and not being good enough and-”

“Shhh, Ben, stop that, you’re doing fine!”

“You seem so... I don’t know, I...”

“It’s all right... Do you want to go back to Hogwarts? We don’t have to do this.”

“But... but that’s not fair to you...”

“It’s not fair for you to be suffering and panicking, either.” I could see him fighting tears in his eyes, and he sniffed and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

“I’m sorry... I want to do this... I’m just so afraid...”

“I understand. You don’t have to be afraid, and you don’t have to do this if it freaks ye out too much.” He was silent for a moment, then wiped his eyes and stood back up straight.

“I want to try again, if that’s all right,” he said, and I smiled.

“Of course it is,” I said, and we went back in. At first, it was a bit awkward to find something to talk about, but I asked him about his family, and he started telling me all about his parents and their jobs and his sister and their home. He told me that his father worked for a power company, and his mother was a drama teacher at the secondary school that he was going to go to if he hadn’t gotten a Hogwarts letter. Then he started talking about her love of Shakespeare, and then we got into talking about what we liked and disliked about each play. Before we knew it, brunch was up, and our meals had hardly been touched. We chuckled lightly to each other and quickly finished our meals before we left. “I thought the tea cakes were a bit sweet, but everything else was quite delicious. What did you think of it?”

“When I wasn’t eating rose petals from that damn Cupid, I thought everything tasted quite delicious,” Ben replied, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I don’t know what’s more romantic, a candlelit meal with a Cupid floating above it or eating rose petals thrown by said cupid,” I replied. We started heading towards the Shrieking Shack, as most people kept away from it, and stopped when I realised I saw Merula leaning against the fence all by herself looking upset. “Wait here a moment, Ben,” I said, and I cautiously approached her. “...Merula? Is that you?”

“What the hell are  _ you _ doing here Cromwell? Couldn’t find your date, either? Or are you here to rub yours in my face?” Merula snapped at me.

“You know I wouldn’t do that even if I did have one, Merula. What’s the matter?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Merula said, turning to look at me and spotting Ben off in the distance behind me. “And you’ve brought Copper, too? Trying to recruit me into your loser brigade?”

“His date never showed, and neither did mine, so we’re commiserating together while everyone else enjoys their dates,” I told her, deciding it best if Merula didn’t know the truth.

“What, you think  _ my _ date stood me up?” Merula demanded.

“Merula, when do you think I said that? I clearly didn’t-”

“People actually like me, Cromwell, unlike you and Copper. I didn’t get stood up, now leave me  _ alone _ ,” she spat at me, and she stormed off, leaving Ben and I alone outside of the Shrieking Shack. Ben approached me as Merula retreated.

“She got stood up, didn’t she?” he asked me.

“I don’t know for sure, but I know Merula doesn’t like to show weakness. Not that it is, it’s such an awful thing to get stood up,” I replied, and I let out a sigh. “Nevermind her, we’ve still got a little bit of time before we have to return to the castle. Did ye have fun today?”

“I did, actually... I didn’t think I would, but I did. N-not that I’m saying you aren’t fun to be around, I, er...”

“Don’t worry, I know what ye meant,” I said, and he smiled gently. “I’d like to do this again, if you’re up for it.”

“I would, yes... I’d love to,” Ben replied. For the remaining hour we had left in Hogsmeade, we leaned against the fence watching the sun sink down behind the shack, turning the sky a bright orange, and as time drew nearer, I let out a gentle sigh. “We should probably head back separately...”

“Probably... I don’t want you to get teased for being seen with me,” Ben told me.

“That’s not why I think we should keep this quiet, Ben,” I told him. “I’ve been getting involved in dangerous things, and no doubt attracting the attention of dangerous people. I don’t ever want you to be a target. The people I care about... they’d be targeted first.”

“I understand,” Ben said. “I guess I’ll... see you soon, then?” I nodded gently, wanting to smile but wanting to hold onto the moment longer, so I moved closer to him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly. Unsure of how to react at first, Ben stood there stiff, but then relaxed and slowly snaked his arms around me, not nearly as tightly, but still firmly. When we had first met, I had been taller than him, but now, he towered a good four inches above me and was still growing. After a moment, we broke the hug, smiled gently at each other, and went our separate ways.


	4. Written In Amortentia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Sadie have a second date, and it is successful.

After my date with Ben, I couldn’t help but feel all giddy and happy, and it certainly didn’t go unnoticed by my friends. “Isn’t it a wee bit strange that she’s so happy when we’re researching boggarts?” Penny whispered to Rowan, who shrugged.

“She’s been like this since Friday. I kind of like it,” Rowan whispered back. Meanwhile, I was scribbling away some notes on how best to deal with boggarts, not really paying attention to the two of them, who were scrutinising next closely.

“If I didn’t know any be’er, I’d say someone’s in love,” Penny said. That I heard, and I cheerfully rolled my eyes with a smile.

“Not every good thing has to do with love, Penny,” I told her.

“So why don’t ye tell us what happened on Friday, hmm? Merula has been spreadin’ rumours sayin’ ye go’ stood up, but ye don’t look like someone who go’ stood up,” Penny said to me.

“Nothing happened, I’m just in a good mood. I never found my date and I wasn’t upset by it at all. Now how’s your research comin’?” I asked her.

“Ahm distracted by all this cheeriness tha’s radiatin’ off of ye,” Penny replied, and I again rolled my eyes. I knew we had a lot of work to do, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Ben, and how incredible that hug between the two of us felt. I longed for his touch again, even though he had only hugged me once, and I wanted so desperately to see him again, but I seemed to see less of him that week than I normally would have, until I caught him in Charms class. I saw him seated by himself with an empty seat beside him, so instead of taking my usual seat where Rowan would sit beside me, I decided to sit next to Ben, who was slightly surprised to see me.

“Uh... hi, Sadie... what are you doing here?” he asked me, perplexed by my choice of seat.

“We’re in the same charms class,  _ amaideach _ . Why else would I be here?” I asked him.

“But... don’t you usually sit over there?” he asked, pointing to mine and Rowan’s usual seats on the other side of the classroom.

“Well, yes... but I thought I’d change it up a wee bit. Is... is that a problem? I can go and sit back over there if it is,” I said, starting to get up, but he quickly put a hand on my wrist to stop me.

“No, no! It... it’s fine, really. I-I don’t mind if you sit here,” he said, and I smiled gently and sat back down. When Rowan walked in, she was very confused by my seat being empty, and she glanced around the room until her eyes landed on me beside Ben. She gave me a look as if asking ‘what the hell’ before she went to her usual seat, and class began. “Any luck with the boggarts, Sadie?” Ben asked me quietly about halfway through.

“We’re getting there... We could use your help, if you’d like to lend a hand,” I responded back.

“I dunno... Don’t boggarts turn into your worst fears? For me, that would be just about everything,” Ben told me, and I chuckled quietly.

“Yes, until you turn them into something that makes you laugh,” I replied. “If you don’t want to come, that’s all right, but ye can still help us research them and figure out how to beat them in the vault, whenever we find it.”

“Maybe,” Ben replied, scribbling some notes down from the class. “About... Friday... you said you, er... wanted to do it again... There’s a lunar eclipse the first weekend of March, do you maybe... want to go to the Astronomy tower with me and... observe it?”

“Sure, that sounds like a fun time,” I said with a smile. “I don’t know how I’ll be able to focus on the vault until then...”

“I mean, we don’t have to... We can wait until all this vault stuff calms down...”

“I don’t want to wait, Ben,” I told him with a smile, and he gave me a gentle smile.

“We, uh... should really be paying attention...” he said, and we both tried our best to catch up to whatever it was we were learning in class.

Meanwhile, I just couldn’t wait for the first weekend of March, and it was hard to focus on the cursed vaults, just as I had predicted. Ben joined us in studying the boggarts and helping us try and figure out where the cursed vault was, but he was none the wiser than we were. He was, however, seemingly drawn to the Restricted Section, a place he normally feared.

“Do you think we’re missing something that might be in there?” I asked him when our group was on the way out.

“I don’t know...” he said, still eyeing the Restricted Section.

“It can’t hurt to go and scope it out,” Tonks said. “Who knows, maybe there is something back there.”

“We can’t go into the Restricted Section! Madam Pince will have Mr. Filch hang us by our toes in the dungeons!” Rowan hissed at us.

“Rowan, Filch can’t  _ actually _ do that, it’s only a threat,” Tonks told her.

“Still, we shouldn’t do it, and if you do it, I’m not going with you,” Rowan replied. “Right, Ben? We don’t want to get into trouble.”

“Uh... yeah, ‘course,” Ben replied, and our group moved on. The days moved on, and finally, the first weekend of March came, and I could hardly contain my excitement. It was a Saturday, so our group of friends sat together at the Ravenclaw table scanning over book after book. Rowan sat beside Ben before I could, forcing me to have to walk to the entire other side of the table, and I sat down between Andre and Barnaby - Ben seemed somewhat uncomfortable with Rowan seated beside him.

“Anythin’ new yet?” Penny asked the group.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” I said. “Nothing new, same information as before, and we’re no closer to finding the vault, let alone how to defeat what’s in it.”

“We’ll figure it out, we always do,” Rowan said, and she looked at Ben and smiled. “Right, Ben?”

“Er... yeah,” Ben said, returning to his book.

“What is that? That doesn’t look like it’s about boggarts,” Rowan asked him.

“It’s not, it’s about the moon,” Ben replied. “There’s a lunar eclipse tonight, Sadie and I are going to study it tonight.” I couldn’t help but blush slightly at him mentioning my name, and I tried my best to hide it.

“Oh, really? Can I come?” Rowan asked, and Ben and I both looked up and glanced at each other.

“Er...” Ben said.

“Don’t you have a study date with Thomas Ripley tonight?” I asked her, and she sighed.

“Yeah, I forgot about that,” she said. “Maybe next time, yeah, Ben?”

“Uh... Yeah, sure, ‘course,” Ben said, and he nervously went back to his book.

“Ha ha, Ben looks like he’s seen a ghost,” Barnaby said, and Ben glanced up at him before glancing back down at his book.

“Right... Well, I promised my mum I’d write her a letter this weekend so I’d best go and do that. I’ll see you lot later, let me know if you find anything new.  _ Tìoraidh _ ,” I said, and I collected my things and left the table.

I took my time with the letter, hoping to take up as much time doing it as possible, so as to make the day pass as quickly as possible. I finished my letter to my mother earlier than I anticipated and then I started, and finished, two essays. By the time I had finished the second essay, it was six thirty, and I was due to meet Ben in the astronomy tower at seven. I waited as long as I could, I became impatient and just went up to the astronomy tower and waited there. At ten to seven, Ben appeared, surprised to see me.

“You’re early,” he said and I stood up, smiled and pulled him into a hug.

“Yeah, I finished my work early and figured I’d just come on up and wait,” I said as we broke the hug.

“I just have to, er, set everything up real quick,” he said, and he got to work setting up a telescope.

“Is there anyone else joinin’ us tonight?” I asked him, knowing that Ben was part of both his astronomy class and the astronomy club, in addition to the Sphinx club, but we were both members of that.

“No, everyone else was busy, so it’s just us,” he said as he adjusted the telescope to focus on the moon.

“That’s fine by me,” I muttered quietly as I watched him. He was quite fascinating to watch, actually. He had beautiful golden blonde hair that curled a little, and soft chocolate brown eyes. Even his figure was attractive - he wasn’t athletically built, but he still looked incredibly handsome. When my eyes drifted down to his bum... I shook my head. Blimey, snap out of it, Sadie! Don’t make him even more nervous! After a few minutes, he was finished, and he smiled at me. “The eclipse won’t really start until later, I believe around eight... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you to come so early-”

“I’m glad ye did, I like spending time with ye, Ben,” I told him with a smile, my cheeks slightly warm and likely pink from catching myself staring at him. For a little while, we sat and chatted about the moon, Ben mentioning how much he loved watching the muggle astronauts get launched into space and how he owns a copy of the 1969 moon landing that he likes to watch. “Did ye want to be an astronaut when ye were young?”

“No, but I wanted to be the guy that put rockets into space,” Ben replied.

“Really? That’s a lot of maths, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I really liked it. I was looking forward to going to school to become an astrophysicist, but I guess I was meant for a different path,” Ben told me.

“There’s no law sayin’ ye can’t get a job in the muggle world,” I replied.

“No, but I think it would be a little weird if I did still pursue it. There’s things I can do in the wizarding world that have to do with astronomy. That and so much has happened... I’m not the same boy I was when I had that dream.” I nodded gently, and we fell silent. Ben was staring forward, seemingly off in some distant place.

“Are ye all right?” I asked him quietly, watching him as he looked out over the Black Lake. “Ben?”

“Yeah, I... I’m fine...” he said.

“No, you’re not... Somethin’s botherin’ ye. Is it somethin’ I said?”

“Not something  _ you _ said, but someone else, maybe, yeah...”

“Is it Rowan? I’ve noticed she’s been trying to attract your attention.”

“No, not her. She has been making me feel uncomfortable, though.” I thought for a second.

“Was it what Merula said?” Ben was silent for a moment.

“It’s been in the back of my mind... especially lately. Every time I see you, I think about it,” he admitted.

“Ben, I told you, she was just trying to make you feel bad.”

“But what if she’s right?”

“She  _ isn’t _ right, Ben, don’t be ridiculous.”

“And how do you  _ know _ that she isn’t?”

“She said that no one would ever want to kiss you, yeah?”

“Among other things. I just can’t help but think that I’ll be alone for the rest of my life, destined for sit here staring at the moon waiting for something to happen that I’ve seen a thousand times and-”

I’d had enough by this point. I let out an irritated huff and turned to face him, grabbed his arm and turned him to face me, grabbed his face and kissed him. He was stunned at first, completely frozen, and when I pulled away, he was staring at me with his wide handsome brown eyes.

“No one would ever want to kiss ye, yeah? I do, does that make me no one?” I asked him, and he nervously shook his head. “And I’d like to do it again, would ye like that?” This time, he nervously nodded, and I brought his face closer to mine again and kissed him, feeling him relax and feeling his warm hands on my face. It lasted several seconds, and when I broke it, I pulled him into my arms and held him tightly. “Don’t ever listen to anyone who tells you that you won’t ever be happy... if you’ll let me, I’d like to be someone that makes you happy.” I felt him nod.

“Y-yeah... I-I’d like that...” he muttered, holding onto me just as tightly as I was holding onto him. I pulled away from him and smiled, placing a hand on his cheek, and he smiled back at me.

“What time’s that eclipse?” I asked him.

“I don’t care about the eclipse anymore,” he told me, leaning into me again and pressing his forehead against mine. I couldn’t help but giggle and wrapped my arms around his neck.

“I still wanted to see it! Can’t we watch it for a little while?” I asked him. He checked his wristwatch, which apparently he’d figured out how to enchant so it worked at Hogwarts, then glanced up at the moon, and then broke our embrace to look into the telescope.

“Have a look,” he said as I looked into it, seeing the earth’s shadow being cast on about half the moon.

“That’s brilliant!” I said, feeling Ben’s hands on my shoulders as he watched the eclipse on the moon above us. I then leaned back into him and lifted my head to look at the moon with my own eyes, taking both of Ben’s hands from my shoulders and wrapping them around my waist, and then I relaxed into his arms.

“That floral scent that I smelled in the amortentia was lavender,” he whispered to me. “You smell like lavender.” I smiled gently.

“I use lavender essential oils almost like a perfume,” I told him. As he held me, I caught another whiff of evergreen, and I knew that we were nowhere near any trees. “Amortentia to me smelled like lavender, the ocean and a hint of evergreen. I smell it now but I know we’re not near any trees. Do you know anything about that?”

“My mum’s best friend makes holistic deodorants and mine happens to be made with pine oil,” Ben replied.

“I love it, it’s also one of my favourite scents,” I said, and a moment of silence passed between us as we held each other and watched the shadow of the earth eclipse the moon. “I think we should keep this secret... Ben, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I don’t want my enemies to use you to hurt me.”

“I don’t care if people know we’re together,” Ben replied.

“I do... I don’t want you to get hurt. I have a bad feeling about what’s to come if we continue to pursue the vaults... and I can’t stop. Not until I find my brother.” Ben let out a sigh.

“I understand... We’ll keep it a secret, then. Can our immediate families know? I’ve told my sister about you and she’s been trying to push me to ask you out since we first met.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“I almost forgot you had a sister... How old is she again?”

“Nine, she’ll be coming to Hogwarts in our fifth year. Or at least I think she will. I think she’s magical.”

“How interesting, two muggleborn children from the same family. It’s very rare for a muggleborn witch or wizard to even be born with magic in the first place, but two?”

“She’s very excited to come here and she’s very excited to meet you,” Ben told me.

“Well, I can’t wait to meet her, too,” I said, and I let out a sigh. “Eclipse looks like it’s almost over, and we’d best be in bed soon if we don’t want Filch to catch us.”

“We’ll just explain that we were doing extra credit work for astronomy.”

“Did you even take any notes on your observations of this lunar eclipse?” I asked him.

“Uh... no... but I can make them up. I’ve seen dozens of them before,” he replied, and I shook my head with a smile.

“Do that quickly then, we can run off tomorrow and be with each other all day if we wish,” I told him, and he did.

The primary reason that I started this story in my third year at Hogwarts was because I wanted to show how Ben and I got together. The majority of my story takes place in my later years at Hogwarts and also beyond Hogwarts, but I couldn’t just jump in with ‘hey, here’s Ben and he’s my lover’. Believe me, I wish I could say that everything else was as nice and sweet and calm as these last few sections have been... Ben and I, we believe that we were meant to be - Ben says it was written in the stars, and I joke around by saying it was written in amortentia.


	5. Cygnus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Sadie attend the Yule Ball as 'friends'. Rowan seems to be interested in Sadie's date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it was the celestial ball but I liked the Yule Ball better and besides, I wanted it to take place around Yuletide.
> 
> I have officially exhausted everything I already wrote a year ago and now have to actually work! My semester just started and I have A LOT of WIPs because I have zero self control so not sure when I'll get back to this. Leave reviews/comments, give it a kudos and give it a bookmark! I have great plans for Sadie and character development for most of our Hogwarts Mystery friends!

My relationship with Ben was going swell transitioning from our third into our fourth year. First, he came to visit me in Barra that summer, in awe at the beauty of the Hebrides and pleasantly surprised to see that I really did live on an island. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “And you  _ live _ here?”

“Well, I never leave, so I suppose I do,” I said with sarcasm, and he smiled at me.

“It’s much better than where I live. It’s a city, always so busy and noisy. Here, it’s so quiet and relaxing,” Ben replied.

“Quiet it certainly is, I experienced some kind of culture shock when I went to London for the first time, and honestly still do every year when we go to Kings Cross Station. I never understood why we do that, honestly. I live in Scotland, for bloody sake. Penny lives maybe an hour or so by train from Hogwarts yet she still has to go all the way to bloody London!” I said, and Ben couldn’t help but chuckle.

My mother adored Ben more than anything, and he got to meet my cousin Lauren and her Gryffindor husband, Sheumas. Sheumas, true to the bold and brave, loved that he was in Gryffindor, but was confused as to why Ben was even in Gryffindor if he was afraid of so many things. I could tell it was bothering Ben by the look on his face, so I simply chimed in with, “I can’t stand doing schoolwork and yet, I’m in Ravenclaw. Perhaps I should have been a Gryffindor instead. Ben, I think we should change houses.”

“What makes you think  _ I _ like doing schoolwork?” he asked me. I didn’t go to his home until early August, when I got to meet his father and his sister.

“Ah, so you’re the famous Sadie Cromwell? Ben hasn’t stopped talking about you since he met you, girl!” said Ben’s father, Rupert, who was every bit of a muggle. I’d never really gotten to know muggles, but my magical upbringing had me questioning a lot of the things he did in silence to Ben, who had to constantly remind me that his father wasn’t magical. His sister, too, was quite a trip. Little Beatrice was a young clever little girl with curly blonde hair and a charming smile. She liked to prank her brother and freak him out whenever she got the chance and always found a way to make him jump out of his skin.

“Beatrice is a massive pain in the bum, but she’s my sister, and no matter how much she annoys me, I have to like her,” Ben told me when he introduced us.

“I guess I have to say the same about you, Benny,” little Beatrice said back. For a little girl, she had a rather fiery spirit, and I looked forward to when she would be joining us at Hogwarts.

I suppose I should mention, we did find the vault before our third year ended. It ended up being in the Restricted Section and I got to turn a Voldemort-shaped boggart into a clown. It truly wasn’t as funny as I thought it would have looked but I suppose the idea of doing that to the darkest wizard of all time’s image was what had me laughing enough to defeat it.

When our fourth year began, Ben and I were still keeping our relationship quiet, stealing kisses behind tapestries or running off into the Forbidden Forest to be alone together, even if it was just for a little while. We kept trying to find a place for the two of us to hide out together when we wanted to be alone and free, but had yet to find one. A few weeks into the year, we started seeing a sleepwalking curse which involved sleepwalking students walking into the Forbidden Forest and getting hurt. Tulip also fell victim to this curse and spent a good deal of time in the hospital wing. We found the vault in an acromantula nest and broke the curse.

While trying to break this curse, we met a woman by the name of Patricia Rakepick, who seemed very suspicious and powerful, but wanting nothing more than to find my brother, I gave into what she wanted and became her apprentice, along with Merula.

In the middle of our fourth year, shortly before Christmas was a Yule Ball, something that wasn’t usually done at the school, however, it was decided that given the circumstances, a ball would ‘lift the spirits’ of the students and put fear to a rest. “I think having a ball when students are quite literally afraid to sleep is a little insensitive, don’t ye think?” I asked my friends at the Ravenclaw table after the announcement was given in November.

“Just a little bit. I think they’re stupid, it’s just an excuse to make a fool of yourself and get laughed at,” said Rowan with a sigh.

“I don’t know, I was cursed and I kind of like the idea of a ball. It could be a lot of fun, getting dressed up and dancing with friends,” Tulip chimed in.

“I love it. I love the excuse to get dressed up and design outfits for my friends! I’ll be designing  _ all _ of your outfits. I’ll have ten by this weekend!” Andre said, pulling out a sketchbook and a blank piece of paper and already beginning to sketch out some ideas.

“Of course you’d love this, you live for creating outfits for other people,” I said with a chuckle. “Rowan, I think you should come. You don’t have to dance, if ye don’t want to.”

“I don’t think so, I’ve got plenty of other things to worry about, like classes and studying,” Rowan said.

“The ball’s right before Christmas though, you won’t have any studying to do,” Tulip said.

“What about all the homework that we get assigned over holiday?” Rowan asked her.

“We get assigned homework over holiday?” Tulip asked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“There’ll be plenty of time to do all your assignments over holiday, Rowan. Just come, you’ll like it,” I told her.

“I don’t think so, and I’m sure Ben won’t either, so we can do something together, like go to the library while it’s happening,” Rowan said firmly.

“That’s a bit sad, don’t you think? Ignoring a ball in exchange for studying,” Tulip chimed in.

“I don’t think it’s sad to not do something I wouldn’t enjoy anyway,” Rowan said, and she stood up. “I’m done with breakfast, I’m going to go and study now.” She quickly left the Great Hall, and I let out a sigh.

“Rowan thinks I’d forego a ball in exchange for studying with her in the library?” Ben asked me when we were discussing it later. We were standing on the covered bridge leaning on the windows looking over the great rock canyon below that fed into the Black Lake. “A ball isn’t exactly my scene either, but I don’t want to study with her all night, either. That sounds boring.”

“It sounds very boring,” I said, wrapping my hands around his arm and resting my head on his shoulder. “Maybe you can convince her to come.”

“Are you asking me to ask her to the ball as my date?” he asked me with no nerves in his voice. In the last year, his confidence had risen higher than I had ever seen it on him and I swore it made him glow.

“No, you’re already spoken for, of course not. But maybe tell her that the ball isn’t so bad. Andre is designing outfits for everyone so maybe she’ll see it and fall in love with it,” I said. He leaned down to kiss the top of my head.

“Worth a shot, if it’ll make you happy, but if she says no, my last resort isn’t going to be to ask her to go with me,” Ben replied. He and I managed to convince Rowan to at least come and see the dress that Andre had designed for her, and it was a beautiful royal purple gown with gold embellishments. Ben’s was the obvious dress robes and a top hat, with silver pants and a royal blue vest to go underneath it.

“All right, I’ll admit the dress is beautiful... but I still don’t know if I want to go,” Rowan said.

“I want to go now,” said Ben, who had told Rowan that he, too, didn’t want to go but did want to see what Andre had put together for him.

“Maybe I will... Will you go with me, Ben?” Rowan asked him rather suddenly, and all three of us - Ben, Andre and myself - all looked at each other with wide eyes trying to explain why Ben would be saying no.

“Uh, uh...” he began, his eyes darting around nervously.

“I’d like to take you, Rowan!” Andre exclaimed, and Ben and I both looked at him. Andre knew that Ben and I were going together, but he didn’t know that we were going as a couple. He believed that Ben would only go with someone he felt comfortable around, so we told him that I asked Ben if he’d go with me and he said yes.

“Oh!” said Rowan with surprise. “Uh.. sure, Andre, that would be... great!” she said with hesitancy, and Ben and I breathed a small sigh of relief. Andre had also made my dress, which was a beautiful royal blue dress with silver embellishments along the waist and a small sheer royal blue cape that draped along the neckline. The sleeves of the dress sat just off my shoulders and came downstairs to just slightly above my cleavage line. The dress itself was free down at the bottom in what Andre said was a ‘vintage 1930s cut’. Andre didn’t let Ben see me in mine until I had actually gone down to the entrance hall just outside of the Great Hall. My hair had been put up in a curled half up, half down style and I wore silver one inch-heeled shoes. When Ben’s eyes lay on me, they widened, and his mouth fell open as he admired my appearance.

“You look so...” Ben said, staring at the dress as I finally made it to the bottom of the stairs. “...stunning...”

“I know it doesn’t seem like me normally,” I said.

“Andre got you perfectly. This dress is  _ you _ ,” said Ben with a smile. “Shall we, uh... go in?” I smiled and nodded, and I took his arm as he led me into the Great Hall, which was decorated like a beautiful winter wonderland.

“Ben and Sadie!” Penny cried, waving at us and running over to us with Tulip and Tonks in tow. She was wearing a bright sunshine yellow dress, while Tulip wore a very beautiful Grecian-style blue dress and Tonks wore a very modern yellow dress. “Sadie, ye look  _ gorgeous _ ! Andre did such a good job with yer dress!”

“Thanks! Yours looks beautiful, too!” I told her.

“You two look like a great pair! Are you going as friends or something more?” Tonks asked us, elbowing Tulip and smirking.

“Just friends, I told Sadie I wouldn’t come if she didn’t come with me. I guess Andre wanted to match our outfits once he found out about that,” Ben replied.

“Well, you two look wonderful together anyway,” said Tulip, smiling more specifically at me. I began to wonder if she suspected something, or even worse, knew that we had been together for nearly nine months, but I tried not to think about that. At the Yule Ball, we danced together as friends, we all sat at a table together and had pumpkin juice and fancy meals, we all laughed and told stories to each other and overall had a lot of fun. Penny, Tulip and Tonks all went together as a group, while Rowan and Andre seemed like they were having a nice time. Barnaby went with Liz Tuttle when she asked him, but he didn’t look like he was having all that great of a time. Charlie Weasley came as well, and was enjoying just being with friends and having fun. At another table, Merula was sitting with Ismelda and they both looked angry at something, but I was having too much fun to really pay them any heed.

After a while, Ben used our code word of, “I think I just need a moment of fresh air,” and he left the group, and I waited a couple of minutes before I would get up to join him.

“Should I go see if he’s okay?” asked Rowan eagerly.

“I’m sure he’s just a wee bit overwhelmed by all this and probably wants to be alone for a bit. He’ll come back, let him be,” I said.

“I can imagine he’s a wee bit worked up, this is a lot fer him,” said Penny, and she was interrupted by Chiara Lobosca joining us at the table.

“Penny! Hello! You look beautiful!” Chiara said to her fellow Hufflepuff friend. She was dressed in a gorgeous silver dress, also designed by Andre.

“Chiara! Thanks, you look beautiful in that dress, too! Silver is very much your colour!” Penny exclaimed, standing up to give Chiara a hug. I then leaned into Rowan.

“I’m going to go and use the lav, I’ll be right back. Watch my food?” I asked her, and she nodded as I got up and left the Great Hall. Instead of going to the toilets, I went outside to the Entrance Courtyard, where Ben was waiting for me in the corridor.

“You took your time, it’s cold out here!” he said as I came around the corner and was startled by his voice.

“Says the lad wearing a coat!” I said to him, pulling him into a hug. “Blimey, I thought we’d never get a moment...”

“Rowan’s sticking very close to me, and I don’t like it,” Ben replied, and he broke the hug to remove his dress robes and wrap them around my shoulders.

“What happened to you being cold?”

“I have covered arms, you don’t,” Ben replied, making sure I was wrapped up tightly before he led me away from the entrance. Near the Viaduct was the Paved Courtyard, which we also called the Quad, and decorated for the Yule Ball inside of the Quad was a beautiful enchanted high-hedge garden. It was snowing, and the newly graduated Weird Sisters were performing in the Great Hall, so the garden was empty, and Ben and I went for a stroll together. “Are we far enough away from others yet?” Ben asked me in a hushed voice, and I looked around, not detecting anyone around me.

“I don’t see anyone,” I whispered back at him, and I wrapped my arms around his neck as we both leaned in for a rather passionate kiss.

“I’ve been waiting for that all day,” he said to me, and I could only giggle warmly at him.

“I’ve been waiting for a moment alone with you all day,” I told him. “I was starting to think our friends would never let us be. Rowan wanted to go after you when ye left to come out here, but I told her ye wanted to be alone.”

“Alone with you, definitely not with her,” Ben said. “She’s a good friend, but she keeps trying to get alone with me and trying to ask me out. I wish she’d take the hint.”

“You could also just tell her yer no’ interested in her,” I replied.

“I think that’s worse than avoiding the conversation. I avoid my problems, I don’t confront them,” Ben said, and I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head as we walked through the garden paths, dimly lit by small twinkling lights that floated above us. Ben looked up towards the night sky, and he smiled, took my hand and pointed upwards. “Do you see that constellation there? The one that looks a little bit like a cross?”

“...yeah? Oh, yes, there it is,” I said. “What is it?”

“That’s Cygnus, ‘the swan’ in Latin. I didn’t think I’d ever see it, I’ve been looking for it forever!” Ben replied, and I looked at him with a smile.

“That’s a funny thing to hear an almost fourteen-year-old say,” I said to him, and he looked at me with a smile.

“Well, I’ve been looking for it ever since I got into astronomy,” Ben told me.

“I love your passion for astronomy, truly. I love to watch your eyes light up when you tell me about the stars and the moon,” I said. I leaned into him to kiss him, but was interrupted by the sound of snow crunching under footsteps. “We’re not alone,” I said quickly, pulling away from him and turning around just as Merula turned the corner of the hedges, and she was surprised to see us.

“What the hell are you two doing out here? Going out for a romantic stroll? Are the two biggest losers in the school a couple?” Merula said menacingly, and I rolled my eyes.

“Only you would find something to bully us about. No, Ben and I came out here to admire the stars. He wanted to show me some of the constellations that you can see in the night sky around here in December,” I told her.

“I don’t care why you’re out here, Cromwell. All I care is that you’re breathing my air,” Merula said as she approached us.

“Well, you came to us, so frankly, I think you’re breathing our air,” I told her. Ben had shied away from her and was trying not to make eye contact with her, and Merula looked at him with a scowl and opened her mouth to speak. “Leave him alone, Merula. We aren’t bothering you. We’ll go back inside if it’s the garden that ye want to yerself so badly.”

“Why do you care so much about what I have to say to Copper, Cromwell? You  _ do _ have a crush on him, don’t you?” said Merula rather crudely.

“He’s one of my best friends, I don’t like you bullying him. And besides, what would it matter to you if I did?” I told her, and I grabbed Ben’s wrist. “Come on, Ben, Merula wants the garden to herself and frankly, her ego is getting too big for comfort.” Ben nodded as we started walking away.

“Hey, Cromwell,” Merula called after me. “Your dress looks really nice.” I stopped, almost surprised, and turned to look back at her.

“Thank you... you look very beautiful in yours, too,” I told her, and Ben and I continued back to the Great Hall, questioning that strange encounter, to where our friends were waiting eagerly for us. Well, some of them. Barnaby and Liz were still there, Liz looking bored and Barnaby uninterested, and Rowan was, too. Everyone else was out on the dance floor.

“You two were gone a long time, where’d you go?” Rowan asked us.

“When I came back from the lav, I went to see if Ben was still outside to see if he was all right, and then Merula joined us, and she was, well... Merula. And now we’ve just come back from that rather pleasant exchange,” I said.

“Didn’t she just leave though?” Rowan asked us.

“I, er... I think I’m going to go to bed,” said Ben, chiming in and steering the conversation away from us. “I’m, er, very tired...”

“Are ye sure? Ye don’t want to stay a wee bit longer?” I asked him.

“Yeah... tell everyone I said goodnight. And thanks, Sadie, for coming with me. I had a lot of fun,” he said, and he glanced at the table one final time before turning and leaving. His dress robes were still draped around my shoulder, something Rowan noticed by picking it up and showing it to me.

“It was cold out... I’ll give it back to him tomorrow,” I told her, and I pulled it off of my shoulders and draped it over the back of my chair, sitting down beside Rowan.

All in all, the Yule Ball was a lot of fun. I loved having Ben as my date, however, I wished that we could have enjoyed it the way all of the other couples did. But all that mattered to me was not letting on that I had a weakness, because I could feel eyes on me at all times. I knew I was being watched, but I didn’t know by who, or why, either. As I looked around the Great Hall, watching people dance and enjoying themselves, I locked eyes with Patricia Rakepick, who gave me a smile. I could not tell if it was friendly or not.

**Author's Note:**

> What are your thoughts on Sadie’s character? Is she too much, too little? What more do you want to know about her? I’ll be making some changes to the MC of the storyline because the writers made a major Mary Sue/Gary Sue and I don’t do Mary Sues so I’ll be fixing her as best as I can without disrupting the plot too much.


End file.
